(USNEWS) — This month’s Esquire and today’s Washington Post highlight a tragic personal story—the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden, known pseudonymously as “the Shooter,” retired from the military 36 months short of the 20 year vesting time for benefits, and as a result lacks healthcare and worries about feeding his family.

This isn’t an isolated story; paradoxically, it’s why the pressure imposed by sequestration, though not the meat-axe across-the-board cuts themselves, is such an important tool to bring military benefits into the 21st century.

It turns out “the Shooter” is the norm, rather than the exception—83 percent of military personnel don’t make it to the 20 year mark. And the category of military personnel least likely to make it to 20 years—enlisted troops serving in ground combat units in the Army and Marines—are also those who have borne the brunt of more than a decade of frequent deployments and brutal wars.